...if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." JFK

I think maybe George Will started this commies drilling for oil rumor and it was passed on by VP Dick Cheney. Both Will and Cheney have admitted they were mistaken. Unfortunately, there are conservatives out there that see no problem with lying to and scaring the American public. Mean Jean and Matalin are just two of those that have no respect for the American people. They believe we should start drilling for oil off the American coast. Fine, so do lot's of Americans. Make your case then - don't lie or use scare tactics like "the commies are taking our oil". Of course China needs more oil! How do we expect them to produce all the products we import from China without requiring more energy.

Here is one reason viewers of Fox News are less informed than people that get their news from other sources. Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett "thinks" the Iranian Shahab missile can hit military installations in the USA. The Shahab-4 missile has a range of 1200 miles. How far is Iran from the USA? How wide is the Atlantic Ocean? Did Jarrett ever study any geography at all? John Bolton doesn't help matters. He says "absolutely" in response to Jarrett's absurd statement.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Read about it here. LS9, a company in Silicon Valley, calls itself the "Renewable Petrolium Company". What kind of people work at such a place? How about a synthetic biologist/evolutionary engineer; a fermentation scientist; a microbial physiologist? That's right, we're not drilling for oil here, we're fermenting it from agricultural waste products. LS9 plans on a demonstration-scale production facility by 2010 and a commercial-scale facility in 2011.

There is more from the Post Star Treadwell says "We need to drill for more oil" article. One reason we need to drill for more oil is that we are importing oil from countries that pose a danger to the USA. Treadwell thinks that country is Venezuela.

"We're spending a billion -- and that's with a b -- a billion dollars per day for foreign oil," Treadwell said. "We're sending money to unfriendly regimes such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela."

Someone needs to ask Mr. Treadwell if there were any Venezuelan citizens that attacked the USA on 9/11. If my memory is correct, a majority of those attackers were from Saudi Arabia. Now I don't expect a good Republican like Mr. Treadwell to remind us that citizens of our good ally Saudi Arabia attacked us a few years back. That doesn't fit the Republican agenda.

Sandy Treadwell, Republican candidate for the House of Representatives (NY-20) was nice enough to send me a color brochure outlining his energy plans. The cover shows an oil pump and says "Less of this..." and next to it a photo of a solar array and windmills which states "More of this...". Good for Mr. Treadwell. He understands that the security of the USA is dependent on energy independence - unlike all those Texas oil men currently running our government.

But read a bit more closely and you will see that there is not much difference between Mr. Treadwell's energy plan and that of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. First thing we must do according to Mr. Treadwell can be determined by reading this sentence.

Transitioning our country to alternative energy sources will not happen overnight, so we must focus on increasing domestic energy supplies as well.

Does that mean drill for more oil? If so, where should we drill for more oil - offshore and in ANWR I presume. But Mr. Treadwell does not address that matter.

Go to Treadwell's website and he makes his energy plan a bit clearer. An article from the Glens Falls Post-Star is prominently featured. The headline is: Treadwell calls for more oil production.

Republican congressional candidate Alexander "Sandy" Treadwell is calling for increased domestic oil production as he looks to differentiate himself on issues from incumbent U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport.

But Mr. Treadwell will probably insist this new oil drilling is only a short-term solution. We need "research" into methods of producing alternative energy. More research? We've been "researching" alternative energy since the 70's. Isn't it about time to actually start using alternative energy? Will more oil move us faster towards energy independence based on alternative methods? I doubt it.

Say we did drill for more oil. How fast would that new oil be refined and into my gas tank? A year or two? Of course not - more like 7-10 years. How will drilling and using more oil address climate change? Does Mr. Treadwell even accept that climate change has been predicted? Mr. Treadwell is merely proposing more of the same failed policies of the last 30 years.

We don't need more oil. We need a "Moon race" energy policy proposal. Energy independence in ten years - repeat, not more oil.